Every Christmas you fall for a poinsettia. But did you know that you can keep it and make it bloom again? With the advice of Roland Motte, our gardener.
The poinsettia is not easy to bloom again, but Roland Motte, the gardener of France Bleu Lorraine and France Bleu Besançon, has a technique that he shares with you.
The origins of the poinsettia
The Christmas Star is also called Euphorbia Pulchérrima, you know it as poinsettia. It is part of the Euphorbiaceae family. It is a very large family which has a particularity: when you break a piece of stem or leaf, you see a white latex. Be careful, this latex is particularly toxic. The poinsettia is a plant native to the tropics of Central America. Over there, it is a beautiful shrub. With us, we will consider it as an indoor plant.
The poinsettia, the Christmas flower par excellence
The poinsettia is mainly found at Christmas time in stores. Why ? Because its color is magnificent. It is red and green. It is its bracts that are red, but its bracts can also be white or pink or have different colors. We even have a few with little gold glitter on top. But that is cheating. They have been added.
– Roland Motte
How to maintain your poinsettia?
Its maintenance is quite simple. He likes 18-20 degree atmospheres. That is why it is a beautiful indoor plant that will suit our apartments. When you buy it in the store, ask to have it wrapped. Because to go from the garden center or the point of sale to the parking lot and to your car, it risks catching a cold. You have to take care of it. We often talk about the red or pink bloom of the poinsettia, but it is not its bloom. They are, as I told you, bracts. The flowers are the very small tips, small balls that are between these bracts, which are cream in color and that you can see at this time.
So precisely, when it is in bloom like that, we must not forget the watering. Water it as regularly as possible. The soil should be very black on the surface. If ever there are a few dry leaves that fall regularly, the atmosphere may not be humid enough. You can place the pot on a bed of clay balls with a saucer underneath in which there will be water. It will be a little local humidity.
How to store your poinsettia?
To preserve it, -because it is possible as a beautiful indoor plant-, in April we will severely and severely cut it in half. We will repot it and from the beautiful season, in June, we will be able to place it outside, always continuing to water it, but in the shade, in the shade of a large tree, for example. . We will bring it in at the end of August, the beginning of September, and we will induce the floral induction.
Flower induction is a technique that will allow you to put your plant in total darkness from 6 p.m. in the evening until 8 a.m., for about thirty days, therefore from September. And for that, you have to think about it every day by covering it regularly so that it is really in the dark. Often it works, sometimes not too much, because you have to be a horticulturalist to achieve this result. But rest assured, if you ever mess up a bit, keep your poinsettia because it’s still a beautiful green plant.
– Roland Motte
Find Roland Motte on France Bleu Lorraine and France Bleu Besançon and on his site www.rolandmotte.fr.